David Cone’s brilliant and emotional Yankees career is over. His stay in the big leagues, however, isn’t.

“I am looking for a place to prove I can still pitch,” Cone told The Post from his Tampa home hours after the Yankees turned the veteran right-hander loose when they didn’t offer him a contract or salary arbitration.

“I know I had a bad year but I still think I am a good pitcher.” said Cone.

Cone, who was 4-14 with a hefty 6.91 ERA last year, was officially told yesterday that there was no room for a pitcher who went 64-40 in six years in The Bronx. Yet, after 14-plus years of reading baseball’s landscape better than most, Cone understood before hearing the news from GM Brian Cashman.

“I was prepared that it could happen,” Cone said. “Brian was very classy about it. He said, ‘After signing (Mike) Mussina, we are tapped out. We aren’t going to make an offer and we appreciate the run.’ I appreciated the phone call.”

When Cone ended the connection, he was no longer a Yankee and free to talk to any team he wanted. The Mets? Red Sox? Blue Jays? Giants?

“We will see, it will be interesting,” said Cone, who has been working out in Tampa. “Now that the deadline has passed, the picture will start to clear up. Until now, there hasn’t been a real sense of urgency.”

Cone and Cashman have a strong relationship. It was Cashman who pushed George Steinbrenner to bring back Cone for $12 million last year. And it was Cashman who reminisced with Cone yesterday.

“We both agreed that nobody could take away the successful run we had,” Cone said.

Cashman had a small knot in his throat talking about Cone.

“We mutually agreed to part company,” Cashman said. “It was definitely emotional. He has been very good for the Yankees. There was no firm offer from us or him. Ultimately, we concluded it was time to turn the page. I thanked him for a major contribution. It was a very amicable departure. We will stay in touch but our relationship has changed. It wasn’t easy, he is one of my favorites and one of the main reasons I have been considered successful. Because of his contributions, it’s not easy to say goodbye.”

Arbitration was never an option because the most the Yankees could cut Cone’s $12 million salary of a year ago would be $2.4 million and that would force them to pay $9.6 million next year.

Cone, who said Wednesday he expected a firm offer from the Yankees yesterday, leaves The Bronx with four World Series rings, a perfect game he tossed against Montreal in July of 1999 and an iron stomach that doesn’t understand the word fear.

Had Cone, who will be 38 on Jan. 1, not gone 4-14 with a 6.91 ERA and separated his left (non-throwing) shoulder late in the season, the Yankees would have considered bringing him back a lot harder than just talking in the generalities of a $500,000 deal with another $1 million in incentives. However, after the worst season of a borderline Hall-of-Fame career, the choice to dump Cone’s clubhouse leadership was a lot easier. Even after he recorded a huge out in Game 4 of the World Series when he got Mike Piazza to pop out – the only batter he faced in the Subway Series – there was no bringing back Cone.

Instead of the savvy Cone trying to prove last year was an aberration, the Yankees will turn to neophyte lefty Randy Keisler as the No. 5 starter in a rotation that has Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez and Mike Mussina.

In an ironic twist, the day they said so long to Cone, the Yankees brought back Dwight Gooden, signing the veteran right-hander and long-time Cone teammate with the Mets and Yankees, to a minor-league deal. Gooden, who was rescued from baseball’s scrap heap by Steinbrenner in June after he was released by the pitching-poor Devil Rays, went 4-2 with a 3.36 ERA in 18 games (five starts) in his second tour of duty with the Yanks. Gooden, 36, will get $500,000 if he makes the Yankees and another $100,000 in incentives. He likely figures in the Yankees’ plans as a long reliever and spot starter.

The Yankees also signed infielder Luis Sojo to a one-year deal worth $500,000.

Cone, a career 184-116 hurler, is a free agent today and headed for another team. That could be the Mets.

For the second straight day, Cone refused to talk about rejoining the team he launched a brilliant and colorful New York baseball career with.

While the Mets continue to chase Mike Hampton to lead their staff, not bringing Bobby Jones back opens a spot in the back of the rotation for Cone, who was a Met from 1987 to 1992 and the ringleader of the baseball’s answer to Animal House.

The Red Sox are another team looking for pitching help and there is a possibility the Blue Jays will bring Cone back for a third tour of duty and re-unite him with good friend David Wells. Cone explained many teams were waiting for the deadline to pass before approaching him and said he wasn’t worried about not enough options.

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Yankees and Casey Close, Derek Jeter’s agent, couldn’t get together today. They are expected to meet early next week and discuss a long-term offer for Jeter.